|  Martin
Waddell has won the prestigious 2004 Hans Christian Andersen
Author Award presented by The Andersen
Jury of the International Board on Books for Young People
(IBBY).
Waddell was selected amongst 26 authors nominated for the
award. The other finalists were Barbro Lindgren (Sweden),
Bjarne Reuter (Denmark), Joel Rufino dos Santos (Brazil)
and Jürg Schubiger (Switzerland).
Waddell was also the Irish nominee
for the 2000 award which was won by Ana Maria Machado of
Brazil.
Max Velthuijs from the Netherlands won the 2004 Hans Christian
Andersen Award for Illustration beating other finalists
Rotraut Susanne Berner (Germany), Roberto Innocenti (Italy),
Javier Serrano (Spain), Grégoire Solotareff (France).
The Author's Award has been given
since 1956 and the Illustrator's Award since 1966. The Award
consists of a gold medal and a diploma, presented at a festive
ceremony during the biennial IBBY Congress.
They are presented by IBBY to an author and an illustrator
whose complete works have made an important and lasting
contribution to children’s literature.
Her Majesty Queen Margarethe II of Denmark is the patron
of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards.
In choosing Martin Waddell as the winner of the author
award, the jury paid tribute to the remarkable perception,
compassion and warmth of this prolific writer. Waddell writes
for young people of all ages with simplicity, empathy and
respect: he recognizes and articulates the complexities
of ordinary lives and illustrates the need of those lives
to be protected and understood.
IBBY was founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1953. Today,
it is composed of more than sixty-eight National Sections
all over the world.
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